Ryōzen Castle

Architecture, patrimoine et histoire · Préfecture de Fukushima

On the volcanic ridges of Mount Ryōzen, which rises to 825 metres on the boundary between the cities of Date and Sōma, Ryōzen Castle belongs less to the history of keeps than to that of the wars between the Southern and Northern Courts. Long before the warriors, the mountain was a major centre of esoteric Buddhism: tradition credits Ennin with founding the Ryōzen-ji temple in 859, and it came to be nicknamed the "Mount Hiei of the North". In 1337 Kitabatake Akiie, a general of the Southern Court, moved Prince Yoshinaga, the future Emperor Go-Murakami, here from Taga and set up a governor's residence near the summit housing the administration of Mutsu Province. A few months later the army left the mountain to march on Kyōto. In 1347 Kira Sadaie, commander of the Northern forces, captured the stronghold, and many of the religious buildings were destroyed. Abandoned in the Ōei era, the site yielded foundation stones, Song Chinese coins and Seto ceramics during the 1980 excavations. Its steep rocks, crossed by a looping hiking trail, make this mountain fortress as much a walk as a place of memory today.